Chicago School 1880s 1910s

The Chicago School comprises an intellectually elite group of progressive architects in late-19th-century Chicago, Illinois. They introduce the skyscraper, a new building type for the new 20th century. This multistory structure estab-lishes a new design language for commercial buildings and comes to dominate the urban landscape. Various factors in the Untied States facilitate the expansion of skyscraper construction. These include phenomenal commercial and business growth; the development of huge, national corpora-tions; new technology such as the elevator and the type-writer; an inexpensive process for making steel; and an emerging American architectural theory. Influences of the group’s work filter to other cities.

HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL

Following the Civil War, a second wave of the Industrial Revolution arises with America at its forefront. New tech-nology, improvements in communication and transportation,

and new or improved manufacturing processes usher in a period of extraordinary growth in industry and com-merce. In response, American businesses reorganize and

C H A P T E R 2 1

Chicago

School

1880s–1910s

All life is organic. It manifests itself through organs, through structures, through functions. That which is alive acts, organizes, grows, develops, unfolds, expands, differentiates, organ after organ, structure after structure.

Louis H. Sullivan,Kindergarten Chats,1901–1902

Louis Sullivan gave America the skyscraper as an organic modern work of art. While America’s

architects were stumbling at its height, piling one thing on top of another, foolishly denying it, Louis Sullivan seized its height as its characteristic feature, and made it sing; a new thing under the sun! One of the worlds greatest architects, he gave us again the ideal of a great architecture that informed all the great architecture of the worlds.

Frank Lloyd Wright,Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture,1941

In the First Leiter building, the Manhattan, Marquette and Reliance buildings, and the Carson Pierre Scott department store, for the first time in the world, engineer and architect collaborated and produced new forms in which construction and architecture became indissoluble. These Chicago buildings were the beginning of the modern

business buildings of the world; with their creation, architecture took on a new and splendid lease for its future life.

T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings,Good-bye, Mr. Chippendale,1944 M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:33 AM Page 538

revolutionize how they work. They also recognize that a different structure is needed to conduct business effec-tively nationally and internationally, so the modern corporation is born. As corporations expand, they increase the number of employees and require more space. Desiring prime locations, they relocate within or move to city centers, creating land shortages and soaring prices for real estate. Consequently, office buildings must grow taller instead of broader. Progress of a new archi-tectural type is not impeded in the United States because it does not share with Europe centuries-old cultural traditions and considerations for the common good. An atmosphere of innovation and the demand for quick profits foster the growth of commercial architecture and offices.

New technologies, many from before the Civil War, also contribute to this development. Until the invention of the passenger elevator in 1857 by Elisha Graves Otis, buildings are seldom more than four or five stories high. The elevator’s appearance and popularity in the Eiffel Tower sets the stage for its use in skyscrapers. Tall office buildings or skyscrapers reaching to at least 10 stories begin to dominate the urban skyline. In the 1840s and 1850s, cast and wrought iron are used for façades and some structural elements. In the late 1850s England, Sir Henry Bessemer develops an inexpensive process for making steel, which is more fireproof than cast iron is. Other new inventions, such as the typewriter (1868), the telephone (1876), incandescent light (1879), and the dictaphone or gramophone (1888), transform office planning, types of workers, and their methods of working. Chicago experiences phenomenal growth beginning in the late 1830s. Already known for its stockyards, the city becomes an important railroad hub and manufacturing center in the 1850s. Immigrants flock there for jobs. Many new buildings are constructed with wood frames and cast-iron columns and façades. However, these materials are not fireproof, as proved by the disastrous fire in Chicago in 1871 in which wood buildings are consumed and iron structures collapse. In addition to the economic and com-mercial growth that creates a demand for more space, Chicago has few established traditions in architecture in the late 19th century, so architects are free to experiment and, thus, to produce the skyscraper. William Le Baron Jenney, architect and engineer, creates the prototype (Fig. 21-5). Four architects who work in his office, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, Martin Roche, and Louis Sullivan, further develop his work. They or their firms become the leaders of the Chicago School, known for its development of the tall commercial buildings.

Changes in how businesses do business also affect the development of the skyscraper and its interior planning and furnishing. Before the Civil War, most businesses are small with only a few male employees. Relatively simple office tasks are easily handled individually by hand.

Following the Civil War, tasks and paperwork multiply as businesses grow in size and scope. Productivity and profitability begin to drive office work and planning. Companies now require managers (Fig. 21-1) to develop and oversee a greater variety of jobs, from marketing strategies to transportation arrangements to tracking sales. At the same time, more clerks, typists, and secre-taries are needed to process orders and handle corre-spondence. Managers (Fig. 21-1) find that women are well suited for these tasks, so women enter the office workforce in greater numbers. Besides being more so-cially acceptable than previously, office pay is better than that of factory or domestic work. However, women still are paid considerably less than men are.

CONCEPTS

Need drives the development of the tall commercial structure, which has no precedent in architecture. Once the technology and construction methods are in place and prototypes appear, the architect’s dilemma becomes how to articulate a multistory building to reflect a human scale. These first manifestations of modern architecture often express the structure on the exterior. Additionally, architects and engineers, such as Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, work together to solve structural and ar-chitectural problems. These partnerships are less bound by the European Beaux-Arts tradition. Consequently, their ideas and Chicago School traditions of minimal or-nament with little historical precedent run counter to the concepts of design promoted in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition by McKim, Mead, and White and others (see Chapter 12, “Classical Eclecticism”).

American architects have increased training at home and abroad in architectural theory. They are more keenly aware of a need for design theory based on function, construction, and scale and are better able to develop their own ideas. At the forefront in Chicago, architect Louis

䉱21-1. Lady’s dress; published in The Delineator, July 1901; by the Butterick Publishing Company; and a man at his desk.

540

Sullivan believes that the building’s form should express the interior function. “Form follows function” becomes his dictum. Sullivan develops the expressive qualities of the skyscraper using classical precedent and his own unique style of ornament. He creates an architectural language for tall buildings.

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

Early skyscrapers have grid-patterned façades, large win-dows for light, and little ornament. Verticality is empha-sized as façades rise relatively unhindered by horizontals. Land size and the need for light in interior spaces drive overall shape and configuration. Façades, covered with terra-cotta or masonry, may have bay or oriel windows or, more often, rectangular ones between vertical piers (Fig. 21-2). Lower stories, which house shops, have large plate glass windows to make merchandise visible. At the

䉱21-2. Chicago style window and other windows, c. 1900; Chicago, Illinois.

IMPORTANT TREATISES

■ The Autobiography of an Idea,1924; Louis Sullivan.

■ Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings,1901; Louis Sullivan.

■ The Modern Office Building,1896; Barr Ferree.

■ A System of Architectural Ornament According to a Philosophy of Man’s Powers,

1924; Louis Sullivan.

■ The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,

1896; Louis Sullivan.

Periodicals:Architectural Record, Engineering Magazine, Engineering Record, and the Journal of the Franklin Institute.

M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:33 AM Page 540

䉱21-3. Architectural details and capitals, c. 1880s–1890s; Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota.

542

street level, shops, architectural features, and details provide a human scale. Louis Sullivan uses stringcourses, projecting cornices, richness of detail and decoration as a part of the structure (Fig. 21-8, 21-14).

Entries, lobbies, and atriums are large impressive spaces with expensive treatments and materials. Offices, in con-trast, may seem more residential or are strictly utilitarian in appearance. The office hierarchy drives planning, finishes, and furniture with executives having the most space, best treatments, and nicest furniture (Fig. 21-26).

■ Motifs. Some buildings have classical details, such as pilasters or stringcourses (Fig. 21-5, 21-17). Sullivan incor-porates plant forms and geometric designs, such as the square, oval, and rectangle (Fig. 21-3, 21-8, 21-11, 21-18, 21-19).

ARCHITECTURE

Significant advances in construction technology affect the structure, form, and composition of buildings in Chicago, New York City, and other metropolitan areas during the 䉱21-4. (continued)

䉱21-5. Home Insurance Company Building, 1883–1885; Chicago, Illinois; William Le Baron Jenney.

second half of the 19th century. Steel skeletons to replace masonry bearing walls or piers, foundations that can sup-port tall buildings, and elevators to access upper floors come together to create the first skyscrapers, or buildings 16 to 20 stories high. Jenney’s Home Insurance Building (Fig. 21-5) of 1885 in Chicago is the prototype. It uses a metal skeleton composed of cast-iron columns and steel beams that support the masonry walls and floors. To fireproof them, iron beams are usually clad with terra-cotta. Steel frame construction leads to the introduction of curtain or non-load-bearing exterior walls that hang from the metal frame. Curtain walls permit large windows for more light, a design characteristic exploited by members of the Chicago School. It ultimately leads to the glass exte-rior walls that characterize the work of early modern designers and the International Style (see Chapters 22, “Modern Forerunners”; 24, “The Bauhaus”; and 26, “Inter-national Style”). Holabird and Roche introduce a rein-forced concrete foundation to support a building structure in sandy or muddy soil like that of Chicago.

Construction improvements occur incrementally, so some early skyscrapers retain load-bearing masonry walls M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:33 AM Page 542

䉱21-6. Auditorium Building (Roosevelt University), 1887–1889; Chicago, Illinois; Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan.

䉱21-7. Second Leiter Building (later Sears, Roebuck and Company Building), 1889–1891; Chicago, Illinois; William Le Baron Jenney.

䉱21-8. Wainwright Building, 1890–1891; St. Louis, Missouri; Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan.

combined with wooden or metal beams. However, the thick load-bearing walls take up valuable interior space. The need for more space and profits will soon eliminate masonry walls except as a cladding. In the late 1880s and

early 1890s, architects and engineers in other cities begin to employ steel frames extensively, and the modern sky-scraper is born. Building lots created by a grid pattern of streets determine the sizes of skyscrapers. Wider lots

544

permit buildings to assume hollow square shapes, whereas narrow ones are rectangular boxes or U-shaped to permit as much light as possible to enter the interiors. Incandes-cent light, although readily available, is inefficient and unreliable.

Because these unusually tall buildings prevent light from getting to the narrow streets below, New York City and Chicago pass laws requiring upper stories to have a series of setbacks to alleviate the problem. In 1916, New York City

passes a setback ordinance mandating that new buildings in selected zoned districts can rise upward two and a half times the street width and then must have a setback. In 1918, a Chicago architectural committee proposes that building heights be limited to 260 feet above grade and that architectural standards be introduced. Consequently, ar-chitects design buildings with tall, slender towers for space and height while permitting light and air to filter to the streets below.

䉱21-8. (continued)

M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:33 AM Page 544

䉱21-10. Stock Exchange Building, 1893; Chicago, Illinois; Louis H. Sullivan.

䉱21-9. Monadnock Building, 1889–1891, 1893; Chicago, Illinois; Daniel H. Burnham of Burnham & Root (north half), and William Holabird and Martin Roche (south half).

Public Buildings

■ Types. Commercial office buildings dominate steel frame construction throughout Chicago and New York City during the late 19th century (Fig. 21-5, 21-7, 21-9, 21-10, 21-12, 21-15, 21-16, 21-17, 21-20). Other types of

546

䉱21-11. Transportation Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893; Chicago, Illinois; Louis H. Sullivan.

䉳21-12. Reliance Building, 1890–1891, 1894–1895; Chicago, Illinois; Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root.

䉱21-13. Floor plan, Reliance Building, 1890–1891, 1894–1895; Chicago, Illinois; by Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root.

M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 546

IMPORTANT BUILDINGS AND INTERIORS

multiple modules composed of a large office with two smaller ones behind it. Some floors have large open spaces for many workers. Heavy metal or steel piers punctuate the plan in a grid system at all levels to support the concen-trated weight load. Piers permit more open and spacious interiors with fewer load-bearing walls, an early prototype for later 20th-century high-rise office buildings. Promi-nent entries lead to vestibules and major public circula-tion areas, such as hallways, corridors, stairways, and

■ Baltimore, Maryland:

—One South Calvert Building, 1901; Daniel H. Burham and Company.

■ Buffalo, New York:

—Ellicott Square, 1892–1896; Daniel H. Burnham and Company.

—Guaranty Trust Building (later Prudential Building), 1895–1896; Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, with ornamentation designed by Sullivan and George Elmslie.

■ Chicago, Illinois:

—Auditorium Building (Roosevelt University), 1887–1889; Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan.

—Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company Department Store (formerly Schlesinger-Mayer Store), 1899–1904, with additions in 1906; Louis H. Sullivan, and additions by Daniel H. Burnham. —Fisher Building, 1897; Daniel H. Burnham and

John W. Root.

—Gage, Keith, and Archer Buildings, 1898–1900; Louis H. Sullivan (façade of Gage Building), with William Holabird, and Martin Roche.

—Home Insurance Company Building, 1883–1885; William Le Baron Jenney.

—Manhattan Building, 1889–1890; William Le Baron Jenney and Louis E. Ritter.

—Monadnock Building, 1889–1891, 1893; Daniel H. Burnham of Burnham & Root (north half), and William Holabird and Martin Roche (south half).

—Montauk Building, 1881–1882; Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root.

—Reliance Building, 1890–1891, 1894–1895; Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root. —Rookery Building, 1885–1888, 1905; Daniel H.

Burnham and John W. Root, with Frank Lloyd

Wright who was responsible for later changes to the lobby.

—Schiller Building, 1891–1892; Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan.

—Second Leiter Building (later Sears, Roebuck & Company Building), 1889–1891; William Le Baron Jenney.

—Stock Exchange Building, 1893; Louis H. Sullivan. —Tacoma Building, 1887–1889; William Holabird

and Martin Roche.

—Transportation Building, 1893; Louis H. Sullivan.

■ New York City, New York:

—Bayard-Condict Building, 1897–1899; Louis H. Sullivan.

—Equitable Building, 1912–1915; Ernest Graham of Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White Architects.

—Flatiron Building (Fuller Building), 1901–1903; Daniel H. Burnham.

—Produce Exchange, 1881–1885; George B. Post. —Singer Building, 1907; Ernest Flagg.

—Woolworth Building, 1911–1913; Cass Gilbert.

■ Owatonna, Minnesota:

—National Farmers Bank, 1907–1908; Louis H. Sullivan and George Elmslie.

■ San Francisco, California:

—Hallidie Building, 1917–1918; Willis Polk.

■ Sidney, Ohio:

—Peoples Federal Savings & Loan Association, 1917–1918; Louis H. Sullivan.

■ St. Louis, Missouri:

—Wainwright Building, 1890–1891; Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan.

■ Winona, Minnesota:

—Merchants National Bank, 1911–1912; Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie.

structures include auditoriums (Fig. 21-6), department stores (Fig. 21-18), hotels, banks (Fig. 21-19), and libraries.

■ Site Orientation. Office buildings and large complexes sit on prominent city streets, often on corner lots.

■ Floor Plans. Floor plans are generally rectangular or square, so the building forms a rectangular box or some-times a U shape (Fig. 21-13). Plans often have a central corridor with shallow rectangular rooms on both sides. A typical layout, which usually repeats on every floor, is

548

DESIGN SPOTLIGHT

Bold projecting cornice at roof level

Dominant entry with arch

Decorative terra-cotta ornament embellishes façade Vertical emphasis created through piers like a column shaft Carved surface ornamentation around windows

Repetitively sized and spaced windows emphasize regularity Round windows with low-relief terra-cotta floral ornament surrounding them

Large glass display windows at street level

䉱21-14. Guaranty Trust Building; Buffalo, New York.

Architecture: Guaranty Trust Building (later Prudential Building), 1895–1896; Buffalo, New York; Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, with ornamentation designed by Sullivan and George Elmslie. In the design of the Guaranty Trust Building, Sullivan captures the expressive power of the skyscraper and exhibits his own theory of skyscraper design in which “form follows function.” Like classical architecture, the building has a beginning, middle, and end. Each is treated differently, reflecting its function within the building. A two-story base houses shops that have large plate glass windows for display. Terra-cotta

ornament of triangles, circles, and foliage covers the en-trance portals and window surrounds. In the middle sec-tion, corner pilasters and piers with reddish terra-cotta geometric and floral ornament rise unimpeded from the base to the top story to emphasize verticality. The orna-ment in panels between the windows adds interest but does not compete with that of the vertical piers. Identical exterior treatments of this section accentuate the identi-cal floors of offices within. The top story, a service floor, has round windows with low-relief terra-cotta floral ornament. A bold cornice caps the entire composition.

elevators. Architects put vertical circulation on axis with entries and exits, recognizing the importance of fire safety and egress. Elevators, stairways, and bathrooms are centralized.

■ Materials. Exterior walls may be of brick, terra-cotta, granite, or other types of stone, giving no hint of the inte-rior metal skeleton (Fig. 21-6, 21-7, 21-14). At first, Adler and Sullivan use granite and limestone to cover load-bearing brickwork. They subsequently adopt steel-skeletal construction covered with brick, terra-cotta, or sandstone, thereby using an outer masonry envelope to cover the

skeletal structure. Color comes from the variety and natu-ralness of building materials. Sullivan incorporates col-ored tile to highlight important architectural features such as entryways (Fig. 21-10, 21-11). Some decorative details are of cast iron (Fig. 21-19). After 1893, skyscrapers often have white terra-cotta or limestone cladding to replicate the image of the White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition.

■ Facades. Building façades exhibit large scale, vertical-ity, repetition, order, and simplicity (Fig. 21-5, 21-6, 21-7, 21-8, 21-9, 21-10, 21-12, 21-14, 21-15, 21-16, 21-17, M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 548

21-18, 21-20). Speculative buildings, built by developers for rentals, have plain, unadorned exteriors. Corporate headquarters, in contrast, are more lavishly embellished. Piers rising from ground to roof level separate façades into bays and organize the exterior composition. Street-level and second floors, which are tall, provide a heavy base with structural supports acknowledged in the design. Piers are wide and heavy at these levels to support the

structure and give the impression of support. Large, wide display windows at this level showcase the merchandise in shops. Entries are large and prominently placed. Upper floors have many windows arranged in grid patterns around the entire exterior. Rooflines have heavy cornices that are generally either a plain, flat slab or a projecting form that is more decorated.

Sullivan, who is widely copied, incorporates an aes-thetically pleasing façade composition in his office build-ings that represents the base, shaft, and capital of a classical column and distinguishes the various functions within the building (Fig. 21-8, 21-10, 21-14). These structures soar vertically upward from the heavy base through prominent piers rising 12 or more stories to the decorated frieze and projecting cornice emphasizing the roofline. Between the piers are large windows. Elaborate carved surface decoration accents entries, piers, bays, spandrels, and the frieze and may accentuate the edges of the building. The profuse decoration, a trademark of Sullivan’s work, features richly carved geometric and organic motifs (Fig. 21-3, 21-8, 21-11, 21-18). Flower and plant forms are particularly important. Some of his build-ings have large, stepped, arched entries framed with a U-shaped surround, all of which are highly ornamented.

DESIGN SPOTLIGHT

䉱21-14. (continued)

䉱21-15. Flatiron Building (Fuller Building), 1901–1903; New York City, New York; by Daniel H. Burnham.

550

䉱21-16. Gage, Keith, and Archer Buildings with lintel detail of Gage Building, 1898–1900; Chicago, Illinois; Louis H. Sullivan (façade of Gage Building on far right), with William Holabird and Martin Roche.

䉱21-17. Rookery Building, 1885–1888, 1905; Chicago, Illinois; Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root, with Frank Lloyd Wright as architect of the lobby renovation in 1905.

■ Windows. Buildings show wide expanses of glass win-dows arranged in rectangular grids that cover most of the façade (Fig. 21-2, 21-7, 21-10, 21-12, 21-15, 21-16, 21-18). The windows form walls, often referred to as curtain walls, a term reflecting a steel and glass construction system. A few examples have bay or oriel windows that rise from the third or fourth floors to the roofline. A new introduction is the Chicago window, a tripartite composition with a fixed wide center window flanked on one or both sides by double-hung sash windows for light and ventilation, as shown on the Carson, Pirie, Scott Department Store (Fig. 21-2, 21-18). Windows come in prefabricated, standard sizes to take advantage of the new technology. The increasing

ability to manufacture larger pieces of plate glass benefits the architectural developments of the time. The glass itself is most often plain. Sullivan uses opalescent leaded glass in some of his buildings to accentuate major architectural features such as entryways. The windows of many buildings have adjustable exterior shades.

■ Doors. Monumental entries, often with large arches sur-rounded by heavy architectural features or stonework, lead M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 550

Projecting cornice at roof level

Art Nouveau-like decoration announces main entry Large display windows at street level

Stringcourse separates base from middle section Rounded corner addresses street and entry below Repetitively sized and spaced Chicago-style windows form a grid across façade

Emphasis on straight lines

䉱21-18. Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company Department Store (formerly Schlesinger-Mayer Store), 1899–1904, with additions in 1906; Chicago, Illinois; Louis H. Sullivan, and additions by Daniel H. Burnham.

to major circulation areas (Fig. 21-6, 21-10, 21-11). There may be more than one major entry.

■ Roofs. Roofs are not visually apparent because heavy or projecting cornices often hide them.

■ Later Interpretations. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, variations of the high-rise commercial office building proliferate in large urban cities across North America and in other parts of the world. Initially, buildings

552

DESIGN PRACTITIONERS

■ Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846–1912) andJohn Wellborn Root(1850–1891) form an architectural firm in 1873 with Root as designer and Burnham as administrator. The firm’s mansions for Chicago magnates lead to commissions for office buildings. Two of their most influential buildings in Chicago are the Rookery Building and Monadnock Building. After Root’s death, the firm becomes D. H. Burnham and Company and continues to design buildings that influence Chicago’s cityscape. Burnham also is chief of construction for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and creates a plan for the city of Chicago in 1909. The firm continues as Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White.

■ William Holabird (1854–1923) andMartin Roche(1853–1927) meet in Jenney’s office and found their firm in 1883. They design numerous skyscrapers in Chicago beginning with the Tacoma Building in 1887, now destroyed. Subsequent commissions range from hotels to department stores. Following Roche’s death in 1927, the firm becomes Holabird and Root.

■ William Le Baron Jenney(1832–1907), a prominent architect and engineer, is primarily responsible for developing skyscraper

construction in Chicago. He collaborates with local engineer Louis E. Ritter to design the Manhattan Building in Chicago in 1889–1890. It is the first picturesque skyscraper to incorporate a metal skeleton devoid of masonry support.

■ Louis Henri Sullivan(1856–1924), a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the L’École des Beaux-Arts, is the creative genius of the Chicago School and the first modern architect of the 20th century. Working together, partner and engineer Dankmar Adler (1844–1900) and Sullivan achieve prominence for numerous skyscraper office buildings incorporating steel-skeletal construction typically covered with brick, terra-cotta, or sandstone. The Wainwright Building and the Guaranty Building are two noteworthy examples. His protégé is Frank Lloyd Wright, another genius of the 20th century.

䉱21-19. National Farmers Bank, 1907–1908; Owatonna, Minnesota; Louis H. Sullivan and George Elmslie.

䉳21-20. Woolworth Building, 1911–1913; New York City, New York; Cass Gilbert.

are often a box shape, which becomes extremely common in the mid-20th century through the influence of Bauhaus designers, such as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, and later their protégés (Fig. 21-21). But in the 1970s, the M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 552

䉱21-22. Section, theater, details, and dining room,

Auditorium Building (Roosevelt University), 1887–1889; Chicago, Illinois; Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan.

䉱21-21. Later Interpretation: Ford Foundation Headquarters, 1967; New York City, New York; Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates.

building form changes to express design innovations, func-tional issues, urban context, and/or environmental con-cerns. By the late 20th century high-rise commercial buildings become innovative and signature design state-ments of corporations, countries, and well-known or celebrity architects.

INTERIORS

Entries and lobbies, which are usually two stories and atrium-like, are lavishly decorated with rich materials. Impressive iron or marble staircases lead to upper floors.

554

䉱21-24. Staircases, Second Leiter Building, Guaranty Building, and the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Department Store, 1889–1906.

䉳21-23. Trading room, Stock Exchange Building, 1893; Chicago, Illinois; Louis H. Sullivan.

M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 554

DESIGN SPOTLIGHT

䉱21-25. Main lobby, Rookery Building; Chicago.

Interiors:Main lobby, Rookery Building, 1885–1888, 1905; Chicago, Illinois; Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root, with Frank Lloyd Wright as architect of the lobby renova-tion (bottom left and right) in 1905. Root, likely inspired by French department store design, creates this two-story in-terior court, which was hailed at the time as bold, original, and inspiring. Flooded with light from a glass roof, retail

stores surround the court. Glazed white brick maximizes the light that enters the shops and offices on the first floor and mezzanine. A prominent staircase with cast-iron rail-ing and newel post cantilevers into the space. In 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright gives the space a more modern appearance without altering its essence by replacing the cast iron with white and gold geometric details.

Windows at upper level allow natural light to filter inside

Large stairway creates procession into interior court Retail shops surround interior court

Iron stairway with decorative balustrade Some lighting is built in

556

䉱21-26. Offices, c. 1900; Chicago and New York.

M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 556

■ Relationships. Major circulation paths from exterior to interior connect important spaces. There is often little design relationship between interior and exterior al-though entries and some spaces may adopt exterior materials.

■ Color. As with the exterior, the primary color palette derives from the architectural materials, including vari-ous shades of wood, brick, marble, granite, metal, and stained glass. Staircases and elevator doors display various metals. Walls are often smooth plaster and may be par-tially painted in an off-white, cream, or light gold. Other colors include earth-tone shades of green, rust, orange, gold, brown, cream, and deep gray. In Sullivan’s work, decorative painting may accent friezes, ceilings, and/or a prominent architectural feature such as an arch.

■ Lighting. Architects design interior plans to take advantage of natural light. Often they integrate the artificial lighting design into the total interior composi-tion, so it becomes architectonic (Fig. 21-22, 21-27). The lighting fixture materials usually repeat the interior mate-rials. Gas or electric chandeliers, wall sconces, and lamps are common fixtures in all types of spaces (Fig. 21-26). 䉱21-27. Banking hall, lighting fixture, and office, National

Farmers Bank, 1907–1908; Owatonna, Minnesota; Louis H. Sullivan and George Elmslie.

Elevators often appear in open cages, at least on the ground floors, with elaborate cast metal doors. Similarly, restau-rants, department stores, and shops have open, light-filled spaces and rich finishes to attract customers.

Small, private offices maintain a domestic appearance with area rugs, wallpaper, or paneling. In contrast, larger of-fices, which are planned by managers, are plain and utilitarian with little color and decoration. Furniture defines the spaces. By the turn of the century, the office hierarchy becomes more evident. Sizes and locations of offices identify executives, managers, and workers, with executives and managers in cor-ner offices or offices with windows. Most workers have small, windowless offices or sit in rows of desks in large open spaces, which become known as bull pens (Fig. 21-26).

Public Buildings

■ Types. Significant spaces in public buildings include vestibules, elevator lobbies, stair halls (Fig. 21-24, 21-25), offices (Fig. 21-26), and retail sales areas. Other spaces vary with the type of building, such as banking halls (Fig. 21-27) in banks or lobbies in theaters and auditoriums.

558

Fixtures often are no more than a glass shade with a dropped cord, or a socket with a bare bulb. Portable lamps providing direct task illumination are a critical necessity in offices. In some of Sullivan’s major projects, decorative glass panels, often covering a skylight, may be built into an architectural framework in a ceiling of an important space (Fig. 21-23).

■ Floors. Common flooring materials include marble, granite, limestone, ceramic tiles, terrazzo, linoleum, and wood (Fig. 21-4, 21-26). Carpets, such as ingrains or Brus-sels, cover floors in smaller offices. Individual offices may have Oriental rugs.

■ Walls. Walls are generally plain, but those in important spaces such as lobbies, stair halls, or executive offices, may have a marble dado or wainscoting. Some are paneled, and individual offices may have wallpaper. Sullivan decorates some friezes and arches with large-scale carved decoration, in-fill painting, or stenciling (Fig. 21-22, 21-23, 21-27). Interior partitions in offices may have glass panels near the ceiling to allow light to penetrate within.

■ Windows and Doors. Windows and doors in important offices may have moldings around them (Fig. 21-26). Oth-ers are more likely to be plain. Doors to offices often have glass panels or transoms above them for light and air. A few doorways have portieres. Most spaces do not have textile window treatments, although some have roller blinds or shades.

■ Ceilings. Ceilings are high and plainly treated. Many have ceiling-mounted gas or electric light fixtures.

■ Later Interpretations. As the 20th century progresses, in-terior architectural features of large commercial buildings repeat the exterior design with numerous variations in sim-plicity and character. Standardization defines office interi-ors and furnishings for most workers. Bauhaus architects, their midcentury protégés, and later modernists strive to unify the outside and inside as one total composition. As a result, buildings designed by architects look architectonic with a heavy emphasis on structure, form, scale, and mate-rials (Fig. 21-28).

䉱21-29. Office chairs and desk, c. 1900.

䉳21-28. Later

Interpretation: Atrium, Butler Square Building, 1906-1908; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Harry Wilde Jones; renovated in 1972 by Miller Hanson Westerbeck Bell Architects.

FURNISHINGS AND DECORATIVE ARTS

During the last half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, office furniture (Fig. 21-29) differs little in form and appearance from residential furniture. The simple boxlike furniture of the American Arts and Crafts period (see Chapter 18, “Shingle Style, American M21_HARW5385_01_SE_C21.QXD 4/12/08 7:34 AM Page 558

䉱21-30. Desk, c. 1900–1910; United States.

Arts and Crafts”) is very popular in many offices. Furni-ture in other more public places reflects the character, scale, and importance of the particular space. Desks are of wood and of three types: rolltops, slant tops, and flat tops with drawers on one or both sides (Fig. 21-26, 21-29, 21-30). Most are plain, but some used by executives are Renaissance Revival or Eastlake in style. Metal office fur-niture is introduced in the early 20th century. Desk chairs range from simple turned or bentwood chairs to Windsor types (Fig. 21-29). Although swivel chairs are available, many still use straight chairs. Paper, which comprises the majority of office work, is bound in books or stored in pigeonholes either inside roll-top desks, on open shelves, or in cabinets with doors. Filing cabinets are shown in the 1876 Centennial Exposition but do not become common

until the turn of the century. Other office furnishings include tables, safes, bookcases often with glass doors, and built-in counters.

In the early 1900s, standardization becomes the norm for paper, filing systems, furniture (Fig. 21-30), and people. Motion and efficiency studies scrutinize office tasks and procedures to increase productivity and profits. Rows of workers seated at flat-top desks replace the individual seated at a rolltop or Wooten desk (see Chapter 1, “Indus-trial Revolution”) so that managers can more easily moni-tor work flow, behavior, and productivity, Additionally, office machines, such as typewriters and adding machines, become increasingly common. The typewriter standardizes the paper sheet to 8 1/2 × 11 inches, leading to standard size manila folders and file cabinets.